MARCH 10: Marketmen are keeping a close watch on the scrips of telecom giants, MTNL and VSNL. According to them, both these companies are in the line for a lot of deals and even divestments. On the VSNL side, the buzz is that the government might divest another minuscule portion of its stake to a strategic alliance partner and this deal is expected to take place in the next fortnight."The valuations are in the Rs 2000-plus range," said a market source, who is closely tracking the scrip. MTNL is also set to go places, according to the market grapevine. The VSNL scrip hit the upper circuit today at Rs 2085 while MTNL was extremely volatile in intra-day trading, opening at Rs 335 and from a high of Rs 337 crashing to close at Rs 302. According to analysts, both these companies provide for easy saleability, considering their valuations in the market.
UTI's buying helps shore up values
The Sensex slipped below the 5200 mark and the clock pointed to 15:40 hours - another 20 minutes to go before trading closed and the market waited nervously to see whether the index could go down any lower. That was when the country's biggest mutual fund, UTI stepped in and began buying. ITC went up and in the last 15 minutes it hit the circuit. In fact according to marketmen the fund had started buying right since 3 pm - but it stepped up its activity in the last lap lending adequate support to finish with the index just 27 points shy of its previous close.
Most of the fund's buying was in some select cyclicals and software. Traders said that in the final minutes NIIT and Infosys, recouped some of the losses made in afternoon deals, with NIIT closing four per cent higher while Infosys was only marginally lower.
Unwinding on the margin
The margin factor is only an excuse for the market to unwind, says market players. The main reason is that the market is in an overbought position stemming primarily from the hype leading to the budget. But now the budget is out and there is no longer any sector specific news to drive the market - "the margins are just the catalyst," said a fund manager. In fact if one ignores the top five or six scrips (belong to IT and media) in which trading takes place, the remainder of the market seems to be in a bear phase.
"There is no actual growth in the broader market," said a dealer, and the movement is mostly sideways. The lack of depth in the market has also contributed to this dichotomy in the stock market - a phenomenon which is being witnessed in other bourse around the world as well.
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